•Opens Holy Year for Catholic Church
Pope Francis celebrating the 12th Christmas of his pontificate, in his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi(to the city and world) address yesterday called for an end to conflicts in political, social or military places across the world.
The 88-year-old Francis said the countries include Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
He also called for talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the war that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago and has killed tens of thousands.
Francis mentioned the Ukraine conflict directly and called for “the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation.”
Speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to thousands of people in the square below, the pope said: “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine!” He also called for “gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace”.
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, was criticised by Ukrainian officials this year when he said the country should have the courage of the “white flag” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
Francis opened a Holy Year for the global Catholic Church on Tuesday evening, Christmas Eve, which will run through Jan 6, 2026.
A Catholic Holy Year also known as a Jubilee, is considered a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon.
Yesterday, he said the jubilee year should be a time for “every individual, and all peoples and nations . . . to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sound of arms and overcome divisions.
Francis, who has recently grown more critical of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, describing it last week as “cruelty”, also renewed his call for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas war and for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
He called the humanitarian in Gaza “extremely grave” and asked for “the doors of dialogue and peace (to) be flung open”.
The Pope called for a “mutually agreed solution” to bring down the border wall that has divided the Mediterranean island of Cyprus between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus since 1974.